Hurricane forecasts next season will have an added and a different look to them.

Dr. Rick Knabb, the Director of the NHC, announced at the Glen Gerberg Weather and Climate Summit on Tuesday that new forecasts for ‘potential’ tropical cyclones will be developed for the 2017 Atlantic basin hurricane season. That means that the full bevy of tropical storm and/or hurricane watches and warnings can be posted, even if a storm hasn’t officially developed yet.

The idea behind this move is to increase warning time for cyclones that may not have formed, but still could pose a significant hazard. Previous stipulations only allowed the NHC to issue watches and warnings when a tropical cyclone (depression, storm or hurricane) had officially formed.

There will be more on this in the next few months. Stay with WeatherNation for the latest on the tropics.